Motivated by the current (2011) political climate in Wisconsin it seems reasonable to devote some time and effort to comment on issues and some of the hyperbole. So we in the public should do what we can to help focus "journalists" on delineating real facts versus spin. If you accept the spin you do not understand the policy implications.

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In general it would be interesting to see aggregate numbers broken down by State Assembly and Senate districts. After all, constituents should be interested in how their own locality fares. Does Walker and GOP public policy and taxation benefit them, harm them or treat the "district" in a "neutral" manner by per capita or with other denominators?

I speculate that most of the Walker and GOP "taxation suppression" and "property tax cuts" benefit-wise do not flow to the rural and small community, poor county but rather disproportionately to wealthy counties by virtue high-income counties. In other words the richer get richer.

WPT/PBS

Katherine Cramer Discusses Her New Book

PREMIERE DATE:

JANUARY 1, 2016

Cramer is the director of University of Wisconsin's Morgridge Center for Public Service. Her new book, "The Politics of Resentment," connects Scott Walker's political rise to a rural resentment against the "liberal elite." This resentment, she says, represents how one's place-based identities influence his or her understanding of politics.

My Comment (BG) -- The irony of course is that Walker has removed power from local governments, towns and counties, school boards, etc., and thus made it easier for politicians such as himself to abuse the disadvantaged, elderly and rural residents of the state. Further removing regulatory authority shifts costs of cleanup, mitigation and correction to future generations.

This was the Walker narrative used to torpedo high speed train infrastructure --

“You’ve got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everybody else out across the majority of the rest of the state of Wisconsin,” said Walker on Wednesday at a capitol press conference. (April 7, 2011)

Paul Soglin's formal announcement that he's running for governor prompted Gov. Scott Walker to criticize the City of Madison even as his administration promoted it as part of a new multi-state marketing campaign.

Soglin, who has been Madison's mayor off and on for three stints dating back to 1973, made his formal announcement Wednesday morning. Soon after, Walker tweeted a warning.

"The last thing we need is more Madison in our lives," Walker said. "@Paulsoglin is the latest extreme liberal who wants to take our state backward."

... The president’s budget plan called for deep cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program, a vital source of support for Wisconsin’s farming regions and small towns. In 2016 alone, the program invested $556.3 million in 8,500 Wisconsin projects to sustain rural businesses and expand access to education and health care. ...

Baldwin recognized the threat immediately and helped to organize more than two dozen senators, who wrote a May letter to the president in which they objected to the assault on programs that benefit rural America.

12/26/2015 ... Be aware - anytime Walker takes something away from one group, say your School Board, County Board, Teachers or state employees he is lowering the common denominator. Others not in those groups have less control of their lives. Your benefits or privileges are affected too.

__________________________________11/11/2016 BGI don't doubt plenty of people have trouble, especially in rural areas, paying their property tax bill. That is a problem the "Homestead Tax Credit" was designed to alleviate in Wisconsin - does it need expansion? Many rural areas also lack social infrastructure as well as physical infrastructure.Why would a family with children want to move to or live in a place with no schools and little immediate access to health care. Why would a retired person want to live there either - they may be stuck and getting to a doctor is really a major problem? Why would someone growing up there, spending most of their time being bused to school, want to stay there when later they can't get a job; when they can go to a larger community get a job, meet other people their age, and have more of a social life?Wisconsin Self-Insurance is likely to decimate healthcare alternatives for all citizens in rural areas.Why?__________________________________The Atlantic (3/17): Red State, Blue City The United States is coming to resemble two countries, one rural and one urban. What happens when they go to war?

But if liberal advocates are clinging to the hope that federalism will allow them to create progressive havens, they’re overlooking a big problem: Power may be decentralized in the American system, but it devolves to the state, not the city. Recent events in red states where cities are pockets of liberalism are instructive, and cautionary. Over the past few years, city governments and state legislatures have fought each other in a series of battles involving preemption, the principle that state law trumps local regulation, just as federal law supersedes state law. It hasn’t gone well for the city dwellers.